Himachal Pradesh High Court declines relief to job aspirants

Legal Correspondent

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Shimla, August 9

The HP High Court has declined to give any relief to the candidates who had sought re-evaluation of eligibility for the Junior Office Assistant posts (Code 556).

While disposing of a batch of execution petitions, a Division Bench comprising Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Ranjan Sharma observed that, “The registration/certification/approval of Institute under the Labour and Employment Department of Himachal Pradesh, Companies Act or MSMSE Department or any other authority is not relevant because eligibility is to be considered on the basis of essential qualification prescribed under Recruitment & Promotion (R&P) Rules and unless or until the petitioners are able to establish affiliation/recognition of the university/institute from where they completed the courses/diplomas, referred in R&P Rules, from the competent authority/department/

university, they cannot claim their eligibility on the basis of affiliation/approval/registration, which is irrelevant with reference to essential qualification prescribed in R&P Rules.”

The petitioners had sought execution of the order passed by the court whereby it had allowed their petitions to the extent that rejection of the candidature of petitioners by the Staff Selection Commission was held to be bad and the commission was directed to reassess the candidature of petitioners, for the post in issue on the basis of merit secured by them in the recruitment process. In case, the petitioners are eligible for appointment, then the same be offered to them against unfilled/vacant post, without disturbing the appointed candidates. In its earlier order, the court had ordered the commission to re-evaluate the eligibility based on the merit of the applicants by giving them an opportunity of personal hearing on July 27, 2024, and take a decision by passing a clear and rational order.

The commission examined the eligibility of 68 candidates and found that the candidature of all the petitioners was rightly rejected by the Staff Selection Commission because none of the candidates had attached the required certificates issued by the institutions affiliated to the Himachal Pradesh Board of Technical Education with their application forms.